Trouble with Traitors
by alot-on-my-mind
Summary: Jim gets a call from Scotty in engineering but something is not right. Can Kirk save the day, or just get beat up trying? Probably both, knowing the captain
1. A call from engineering

**Author's note: Hi guys, thanks for reviewing my other stories! This one should be a little longer. I have it all written, I just need to edit and post it. Thanks for reading!**

* * *

"Captain, there's a call from engineering for you" Uhura called from her station on the bridge.

Jim Kirk nodded and pressed a button on his chair, "this is the captain, how can I help you?" he answered brightly, happy for a distraction from an otherwise boring shift.

"Captain, we have a situation down here, do ye think ye could spare a minute?" Scotty's tense voice sounded through the connection.

Kirk frowned at the engineer's strange tone and unusual formality, "sure Mr. Scott, I can be down there in five minutes. Kirk out".

As he cut the connection and stood up, Spock rose from his station and approached the chair. "Captain, I do not see the need for you to personally attend to Mr. Scott's summons without additional information as to the nature of the disturbance, if you would permit me to…"

Kirk waved him off, "it's fine Mr. Spock, nothing's going on up here anyway, I'm sure you can continue without me for a while"

Spock raised an eyebrow, recognizing that the captain was teasing him and would probably go down anyway. "Of course, Captain" he conceded with a slight nod.

Kirk beamed and headed to the turbolift "Try not to miss me too much" he called to the crew and waved as the doors slid shut. The smile slid off of Jim's face as the lift started to move, Scotty sounded distressed on the brief call and Jim sensed something was off but had not wanted to alarm the rest of the bridge on a hunch.

The minute Jim walked into engineering, he knew his hunch was correct. Scotty was on the floor, communicator still in hand, and there was no one else in sight. Running to the engineer's side, Kirk knelt down and tried to wake the man, alarmed by the blood pooling underneath his head.

"That was fast, _Captain_" a voice sounded from behind the pair. Jim whirled around, standing defensively in front of the still unconscious Scotty as five men stepped from the shadows, aiming phasers at the captain. Kirk's eyes widened, he recognized these men, they were on the Enterprise's security force.

"What did you do to Scotty?" he demanded.

"Oh, we had no further use for him once he lured you down here and away from your precious chair. You should be more worried about what we are going to do to you" One of the men replied, sneering,

"What do you want" Kirk spat, hoping for more information than vague threats.

"We want your ship of course. You have enemies _Captain_, enemies who are willing to pay for such a fine ship as this, especially if it means your death" the leader smiled as the other four edged around to surround Kirk.

Kirk stalled, preparing for the inevitable attack "you think you can take over the Enterprise with just five guys? You gotta be kidding me" he goaded.

"On the contrary, we merely need to disable the controls and secure the bridge. Others are waiting for our signal." With that ominous announcement, he nodded at other men and they sprang into action.

Kirk held his own, breaking the nose of one assailant and causing another to double over in pain before the third got in a solid punch and the fourth, who Kirk dubbed Ugly, overpowered him and slammed him into a wall, holding him up by his throat. ("Why do they always go for the throat?" Jim cursed silently).

"Fucking traitors" he rasped "there's no way in hell you losers are gonna take my ship". Ugly leaned in and grinned wickedly, "who's gonna stop us, the Great Captain Kirk? You've been captain for less than two years and you're already gonna lose your ship. You're a failure."

Kirk lashed out viciously with his feet and grinned in triumph as something connected, Ugly didn't let go though, only glared and gripped tighter as he recovered. He punched Kirk in the stomach and reeled back for another but stopped when the leader called from a nearby computer console, where he was typing furiously, "that's enough, I'm done here and we have to secure the bridge. Just leave him and the explosions will finish him off. I want him to burn along with his precious ship."

Just as Kirk's vision started to blacken around the edges from the lack of oxygen, Ugly let him go and he slid down the wall, gasping for air. The five traitors headed for the door (not before Ugly got in one last kick that left Kirk curled in on himself, clutching his stomach). Kirk heard the leader laugh as he left "So long, _Captain_, it has been a pleasure serving on your ship" he mocked.

The doors slid shut and an explosion sounded somewhere behind him, Kirk tried to crawl back to Scotty's side, where he would be relatively protected behind a low wall, but a chain reaction started and the floor rumbled beneath him. Pain ripped through his body as the world around him erupted into flames and he was thrown forward.


	2. A man with a plan

Another explosion, further away this time and smaller, roused the Captain and he pulled himself towards the console the traitors had been using, (though it was now slightly on fire). Groaning as his abused back connected with the heated metal, Kirk cautiously reached a hand up to probe his aching ribs for damage. A few shifted under his touch, causing him to wince. "Broken" Jim mused aloud, "Bones is gonna kill me". His continuing search abruptly stopped as his fingers came into contact with something jutting from his side. "Damn", Kirk lamented " this is gonna suck". Before he could regret his decision, he grabbed the chunk of metal and yanked it out. His vision went white and his head swam as he gasped, trying to breathe past the pain in his injured ribs and punctured abdomen.

He heard shouts nearby as crewmembers from engineering were drawn to the source of the explosion, brandishing fire extinguishers. "Captain!" A worried voice exclaimed. Kirk began to pull himself up and a hand under his elbow helped him stand. He glanced to his side, offering a brief smile of thanks (it came out almost as a grimace but who was judging).

A jumble of voices surrounded him as more of the crew began to arrive from deep in the depths of the ship.

"Captain, what happened?"

"Are you alright?"

"Who did this?"

"Someone call medbay"

At the last shout, Kirk's snapped his head up, "wait, don't call anyone, we have an emergency situation and we need to keep this contained. I don't want word getting out that there are traitors onboard and starting a panic."

A noise of protest sounded from the young man still hovering by his elbow. Kirk held up a hand and continued, "That's an order." He glanced at the figures gathered around and tried to hide a wince as his wounds throbbed, he noticed that someone had gone to help Scotty who still lay on the floor, though he didn't appear to be any worse off than before, thankfully.

He scanned the console, quickly deeming it useless in figuring out what the traitors had done due to fire damage. "Someone get me a PADD" he began, rapidly forming a plan in his head. An ensign scurried off to full fill this request as Kirk continued, "and start trying to contain the damage. Fix what you can but be careful and don't leave engineering. Who's good with the computer systems?" A young woman to his left responded "I am, sir". The captain nodded in her direction "good, you're with me. The rest of you get to work".

The ensign with the PADD reappeared and handed it to the captain, "thank you" Kirk said as he took it and immediately began tapping away (after wiping some of the blood off his hands onto his already dirty pants) trying to figure out and reverse whatever the traitors had done to the ships controls. The ensign beamed and scurried off again to help his crew mates.

The man who had helped him up again made himself known, "Captain, I understand you wish to keep this quiet but you need medical attention"

Distracted, Kirk glanced in his direction "I'm fine, ensign...?"

"Carter, sir" he replied "and no, you're not fine, you're barely standing" to demonstrate his point, he poked the captain in the ribs.

"Shit!" Kirk swore as Carter called his attention back to the injuries covering his body. The pain again threatened to overwhelm him and he swayed on his feet, the PADD almost crashing to the floor as it was momentarily forgotten. Carter caught his elbow and helped lower Kirk onto a nearby ledge that was only slightly singed.

Indignant at this treatment, Kirk pushed Carter off, "don't do that" he hissed, glaring at the man before going back to feverishly typing a complicated line of code into the device in his hands.

The ensign tried again in a softer tone, "I've taken some first aid classes, please at least let me try to stop the bleeding"

Intent on his work, the captain gave him a surprised glance and gave a noncommittal noise that was interpreted as permission. Passing the ensign the captain had asked to stay (who was currently standing awkwardly by the wall watching the exchange), Carter grabbed an emergency med kit off a nearby wall and returned to the captain.

Finishing off the code and mapping out the next step of his plan in his head, Kirk beckoned the other ensign over and proffered the finished code. "Take this and upload it into the system, it should get the security systems back up so they can't take control of the ship. Oh, and it should sound the alarms to warn the bridge crew in case I can't stop the traitors myself. I already tried the communications channels, they've been shut down as well."

The ensign scanned the PADD and her eyes widened, stunned at the intricacy of the hastily written program and the captain's thorough diagnosis of the traitor's hacking. She quickly found a moderately undamaged console (at least this one wasn't on fire) to type the code into.

His first task done, the captain again tried to stand, noticing that Carter had managed to bandage a few of his larger wounds while he was focused on the code. His quick job had effectively stopped the bleeding, at least for the moment, but that didn't mean it hurt any less.

"Captain, please, you shouldn't be running around" Carter tried to keep him still with a hand on his shoulder.

"Thank you for the bandages but there are more important things at stake here than a couple of broken ribs and a little blood loss."

"A lot of blood loss and some serious burns" Carter interjected.

"I'm _fine_" the captain repeated more forcefully, "look, there are traitors on this ship trying to take control. They think I'm dead so I have the advantage for the moment but I have to act fast before they get to the bridge. "

"I'll come with you" he tried.

"Too dangerous, besides, I need you to stay here and help Scotty and anyone else injured in the explosion."

"Yes, sir" Carter replied reluctantly.

Kirk pushed off the wall and made his way to a door near the back of engineering that he knew led to a hallway that was seldom used, passing crew members frantically putting out fires as he went. He stuck to rarely used passageways (and the occasional air vent or Jeffries tube) to get back to the bridge, thus passed very few crewmembers. Even without his command gold shirt and covered in blood (or maybe because of the blood) he was still recognizable but quickly waved off the concerned crewmembers' help and told them to return to work as usual, still not wanting to call attention to the situation.


	3. keptin on ze bridge

**Author's note: Thanks so much for reading and for the reviews! Sorry I took a while to update, I've been really busy. Anyway, here's the third chapter and there should be one more after this.**

* * *

As he neared the bridge he caught a glimpse of the traitors and followed at a discreet distance. They traveled fairly spread out, secure in their outward disguise of normalcy, and Kirk grinned. "This is almost too easy" he thought to himself.

The Captain slowly snuck closer with each twist and turn of the hallways until he could grab the traitor closest to him, pulling him around a corner and disarming him before he could utter a sound. Panting slightly and with a hand to his aching ribs and a grin on his face he stunned the man where he stood with the stolen phaser, causing him to slump to the ground with a dull thud.

Kirk whirled around the corner, firing at the other four as they stopped to investigate the noise. Two dropped quickly in the sudden onslaught of well-aimed phaser fire but the other two ducked around the next corner and began firing back. Their phasers were definitely not set to stun.

"Ooh nice try, I think I felt my hair singe on that one" Kirk taunted between shots.

"How are you even still alive? Who the fuck are you?" yelled back the leader of the group.

Kirk grinned maniacally, firing at the other man as his last lackey dropped to the ground, stunned. "I'm Captain James T. Kirk and no one takes over MY ship."

"I thought you were dead, you bastard" the last traitor snarled, leaning a bit too far from his cover in his anger, exposing himself.

Kirk fired one last shot and the leader fell, "you should have made sure, asshole, I'm not that easy to kill" Kirk told the unconscious man.

Of course the alarms chose that moment to start blaring, now that they were no longer needed. Smiling a little and leaning against a nearby wall for support, Kirk just shook his head "Guess I took them out a little too quickly, where's the fun in that?"

Kirk put a hand to the stabbing pain in his side, which was most likely bleeding again after the fight, and made his way down the last few hallways to the bridge. The door slid open to reveal his bridge crew frantically trying to figure out what was happening and why the alarms were going off. Jim Kirk watched them work for a minute before walking calmly to his chair and sitting down with a smirk.

The ever watchful Spock was the first to spot him as he sat down and quickly came to stand beside him. "Captain both your appearance and facial expression indicate that you have insight into the current situation."

Kirk laughed, drawing the attention of the rest of the bridge crew, "You would be right Mr. Spock." The frenzied movements and reports ceased as they all looked to their captain in surprise. Kirk gestured to Uhura, "Lieutenant, shut off those alarms please". She looked confused but dutifully complied before turning back to the captain.

"Captain, I would again inquire as to the state of the emergency and your involvement in it"

The captain took a minute to grin at the puzzled looks he was getting before he began, "well Mr. Spock, it seems we had a few traitors in our midst," a few of the crew gasped at this, "but I took care of them so the alarms are no longer necessary." Spock raised an eyebrow. "Oh, but we need to restore the computer systems in engineering, those assholes screwed up the security protocols and controls badly down there with a chain reaction of explosions, Chekov please look into it and report, Scotty's out of commission at the moment." Kirk grew serious as he remembered the extent of the damage down there, "Uhura, send a medical team and some security down there to assess the casualties and assist in repairs"

"Aye, sir" "Yes, sir" came the replies and most of the crew turned back to their stations to resume handling the situation at the Captain's prompting. Spock, however, remained by Kirk's side as he had not missed the blood on his captain's face and the torn state of his clothes, nor the occasional wince as the Captain moved.

"Captain, you report that you dealt with these... traitors yourself. May I inquire as to their current location?"

"Hmm? Oh, they're all stunned in a hallway. Which reminds me, Mr. Sulu, call a security team and go pick up the traitors, theyr'er five of them a few hallways in that direction," he waved vaguely "and they're all wearing security uniforms." Sulu's eyes widened at his captain's seeming nonchalance about taking out five men by himself, but he knew by now not to question Jim Kirk.

As Sulu left, Spock continue, "Captain, I would request that you report to sickbay and have Doctor McCoy attend to your injuries, they appear to be severe."

"Yeah, I will in a minute, Spock" Jim mumbled, rubbing his side absently, "Bones'll kill me if I keep running around with a fuckin' stab wound. I just hate the man's damn hypos" he continued with a grimace before trailing off as Spock's eyebrow traveled even further up his face in concern for the Captain's willingness to disclose the severity of his wounds. ("Shit did I say that out loud? Gotta be the blood loss catching up to me, dammit" Kirk cursed himself internally.)

"I'm fine Spock, but I know you'll just call Bones anyway so go ahead" Jim sighed as he waved the Vulcan off shakily. With a slight nod, Spock complied without further question, comming the doctor on his personal line.

"Spock? What'd Jim do now and what was with all the damn alarms?" McCoy grumbled when he answered.

"My apologies doctor that you were not informed of the situation. It appears there was a group of traitors aboard who attempted to gain control of the Enterprise. The captain has stated that he "took care of" the offenders and has returned to the bridge. He appears to have sustained numerous injuries as a result of his actions and has requested your presence on the bridge" Spock explained calmly.

"Dammit Jim" the doctor growled through the line loud enough for Jim to hear. "I'll be right there Spock, tell that damn troublemaker to stay put" he finished as Jim laughed in the background at Bone's tone. "Of course, Doctor" Spock replied as McCoy cut the connection.

"Told ya he'd be mad" the Captain grinned through his panting, clutching his side harder now after his laughter stopped.

"Captain, I would implore you to heed the doctor's advice and remain stationary as your actions appear to be aggravating your condition."

Considering the dizziness rapidly overtaking his concentration and the impending arrival of the doctor, Jim decided to take Spock's advice for once and quit laughing. (And moving. Mostly moving. Best to quit that altogether actually.)

McCoy arrived shortly and stomped over to the Captain's chair ready to start yelling but concern quickly took over as he took in the captain's pained posture and closed eyes.

"Jim, dammit Jim, look at me" he called softly, brushing a hand over his cheek carefully. Jim opened his eyes at the touch and blinked in surprise (when had Bones gotten there and when had his eyes closed? he wondered). He tried to smile at his friend, "hey Bones" he murmured.

"Good to see you're still with us Jim" Bones sighed, running a tricorder over the captain. He frowned at the results, "want to tell me how you managed to get burns across your entire back?"

Jim looked away, "ummm, engineering blew up?" he offered. Bones' eyes widened. "It wasn't me I swear," Jim hurried to explain, "it was the guys trying to take over the ship, they used Scotty to lure me down there before blowing the controls up. Shit, Scotty, is he okay?" Jim broke off and looked to Uhura.

"He will be fine captain, the medics sent to engineering found him and are treating him along with those wounded in the attack" she replied soothingly.

Jim nodded gratefully, gingerly relaxing back into the chair as Bones continued to scan him. "Dammit Jim" McCoy growled lifting up Jim's shirt, "you've been running around with a stab wound too? That's it, I'm taking your ass to sickbay now and you will come quietly or I swear to god I will hypo you so hard..."

"Okay, okay, calm down already, why do you think I let Spock call you?" Jim cut in as he held a hand up to placate the doctor.

The doctor made a skeptical noise, "I just assumed the sneaky hobgoblin called me behind your back, how much blood did you lose?" Bones tried to joke, though he was inwardly concerned that Jim would willingly let himself show 'weakness', as he called it, by asking for help. The concern leaked onto his face when Jim just sighed and closed his eyes again instead of protesting.

"C'mon Jim, let's fix you up. Can you stand?" Bones asked softly.

"Doctor, would it not be prudent to call for a stretcher?" Spock cut in.

"No way Spock, I let you call Bones but there is no way I'm getting on a stupid stretcher," Jim protested as he used the armrests on his chair to stand. McCoy, used to Jim's strange inhibitions, just rolled his eyes and moved to help the captain up. He made it mostly upright before dizziness overtook his senses and he sagged against the doctor.

"It's alright Jim, I got you" Bones reassured him softly. He slung Jim's arm around his shoulder as Jim regained some of his balance.

"Sorry Bones" Jim panted, exhausted.

"Do you require assistance?" Spock asked but Jim stopped him. "No Spock, there's still an emergency in engineering, a lot of the systems were damaged. I hacked into parts of what was left and patched it up but it's nowhere near fixed," he shrugged (and immediately regretted it, ouch). "I need you in the Captain's chair" he finished.

"Quit shifting your ribs, idiot" Bones growled from Jim's side as he began pulling the pair forward.

"Yeah, yeah, so you always tell me" Jim retorted, causing Spock to raise an eyebrow at the odd pair's exit.

As soon as the doors closed behind the two and they were alone in the lift, Jim's face dropped and he again sagged into McCoy's side. Bones was ready for him and took his weight easily. "You always do things the hard way, don't you, kid?" Bones murmured. Jim mumbled something unintelligible but Bones just shushed him, "almost there Jim, hang on a little longer."


	4. Aftermath

**Author's Note: hey guys, here's the last chapter and thanks for reading. I hate endings so hopefully I didn't do too bad :)**

* * *

When Jim woke up, he was mercifully pain free, though he couldn't feel much of anything actually. He tried to sit up, which proved to be a bad idea (oh, there's the pain).

"When will you ever learn to just take it easy, kid?" A gruff voice sounded to his right. Jim carefully turned his neck (less pain this time) to find Bones had appeared at his side.

"Bones! How's the ship? Is engineering still on fire? How long was I out? " he began frantically.

"Jesus Jim, calm down" Bones reassured him, pushing the man back down, "you left Spock in charge remember? He may be a green-blooded hobgoblin but he gets things done. Worry about yourself instead, you've been asleep for about three days. You had extensive burns along your back, some seriously bruised ribs, and residual shrapnel in the laceration on your side, not to mention the blood loss. No wonder you let Spock call me, you must have been so out of it. How the hell you managed to take out five men in that state I'll never know."

Some of the tension left Jim at this and he chuckled a bit, rubbing absently at his ribs. "You can thank ensign Carter in engineering for that, he patched me up a bit so I could catch those fucking traitors."

"I'll be sure to do that, he probably saved your life" Bones told him dryly. "Maybe I should make first aid training mandatory on this damn accident prone ship," he muttered to himself as Jim's eyelids drooped. McCoy sighed and brushed a hand over Jim's arm as he left "get some sleep Jim" he said fondly.

Next time Jim woke, he found Chekov and Uhura sitting next to him chatting quietly.

"Keptin! You are avake!" Chekov was the first to notice. Jim smiled at the young ensign's enthusiasm. "Hey guys, what's been going on with the ship?" He asked, hoping these two would give him more details than Bones had.

"Ze doctor varned us not to excite you, keptin" Chekov told him, looking worried. Uhura merely smiled and shook her head, knowing Jim would find out eventually. "It's fine Chekov, the captain can handle it." Jim grinned, "I won't tell if you won't" he mock promised.

"Vell, ze fires in engineering vere mostly put out by ze time zat ze alarms went off. Security helped to put out ze rest and helped vith repairs", Chekov began spilling his information. "Meester Spock sent me down zere to owersee the vork while meester Scott vas being treated." He paused, confused, "Keptin, zey told me you wrote ze code zat patched ze seestems and fixed ze alarm?" Jim nodded at this and Chekov's eyes widened, amazed. "Zey vere wery complex sir, I did not know you knew how to do zis, vere did you learn?" He blurted. Jim laughed at the young navigator's excitement, "Oh, I'm full of surprises, not knowing is half the fun" he teased. Even Uhura looked impressed, trusting Chekov's judgement on Jim's supposed skills.

"Anyway, are we back up and running?" Jim changed the subject.

"Yes sir, most of ze damage has been fixed and computer seestems are fully functional".

"Good work Mr. Chekov," Jim smiled brightly, "Lieutenant, how are those who were injured in the explosion?"

"There were no casualties, sir, and those who were injured have been taken care of. It seems the traitors sabotaged another area to draw most of the engineering crew away from the explosion so they wouldn't draw suspicion before they could set it off." Jim nodded, "they wanted to get me alone I suppose" he said absently.

Uhura and Chekov exchanged a look at their captain's nonchalance. "Sir, why did you take them on alone? Why did you not call for help?" Uhura asked gently. Jim blinked in surprise, "I didn't want anyone else to get hurt if they didn't have to. This is my ship and it's my job to protect it at any cost."

"But keptin you vere injured! Ve vould haf helped you" Chekov protested.

"Listen to the kid Jim, you don't always have to do things on your own" McCoy said. Uhura and Chekov whipped their heads around, not having heard the doctor approach.

"Busted" Jim muttered, glancing away.

"Damn right you're busted," McCoy growled before switching to a softer tone, "I might have told these two not to excite you but that doesn't mean they're wrong".

"We all care about you, Captain, and we hate to see you hurt" Uhura explained, not fazed by the doctors rough exterior. Chekov nodded emphatically in agreement. Jim smiled tentatively at his crew, speechless at their level of affection and devotion. Though that only made him all the more willing to sacrifice himself again if it meant protecting them. "Thanks guys" he told them earnestly.

"Alright, alright, enough emotional confessions for one day, shoo you two, and let this idiot rest" Bones motioned for them to leave. Jim waved as the two left, happy the movement barely caused any pain this time.

"Sooo, Bones" Jim began playfully, "when can I go back on duty?" He finished with a grin before laughing at the murderous look Bones gave him, happy his ship and crew were safe, at least for the moment. (Though his neck seemed to be in immediate danger of getting hypoed.)


End file.
